Biography

The Peterson Brothers Interview for New Single:
"Give Me Your Love"

The Peterson Brothers have released their new single, Give Me Your Love, Nov. 27, streaming on all platforms and available to purchase in iTunes, Amazon, Apple Music and on their site.

Q: Your new album Intro is in the works for an early 2020 release with the single Give Me Your Love coming out Nov. 27. What does the album title Intro mean to you guys?

Glenn Peterson, Jr.: For us, the title Intro means just a proper introduction to who we are musically. I feel like the way we recorded it, with the songwriting and the way the arrangements are, it feels like seeing us live. The thing that my brother and I talked about was both having the creativity of the studio to be able to do overdubs and ad lib vocals and stuff like that, but we also still wanted to have the same energy and intensity that we do playing at a live show. So we just feel like it's a great representation of that as an EP. And also you can hear everything that influences us. You can hear soul, you can hear blues, you can hear funk, there’s jazz, you can hear a little bit of everything inside it, and that’s what we really grew up on. That’s what makes us both who we are musically today.

Q: It does have a big, live sound. The first single Give Me Your Love combines soul, classic r&b and funk. Do you guys feel like you’re starting to bust past genres in an industry that always wants to narrow bands down to one thing?

Alex Peterson: Yeah, I feel like we definitely just envisioned everything that we’ve been inspired by musically, given all those genres, you know, jazz influences, gospel, I definitely feel like we just want to always keep it versatile and open and accessible to everybody, and stay true to what we do and with what we’ve been inspired by in music all these years.

Q: How did you guys choose? Give Me Your Love for the first single?

Glenn: It’s the first one we started playing live and we just saw the perception of it and how the crowd perceived it, and we just enjoy the energy of it. They say all your songs are kind of like your kids, so there’s not really a favorite one, but it was definitely the first one out of this whole batch of songs that we wrote and decided to go with. We feel strongly about all the songs but we feel this was just a great track that displays both singing, songwriting, jamming, musicianship — and it was a blending of all those things. Usually we’re indecisive, especially when it comes to all our original songs on this EP, so we thought since this was the first one and the start of all this, why don’t we go with this one for the single?

Q: This question’s a throwback, a garage sale find from your mom and grandma, a crate of records and a the turntable, got you guys interested in being musicians. What are a couple of classic albums that still influence you guys’ sound?

Alex: I’d say some of the ones we found that still inspired us. Those were Earth Wind, & Fire Gratitude, there’s two Isley Brothers Records Go All The Way & The Real Deal, a BB King album and The Brothers Johnson.
Glenn: The BB King one was The Best of BB King from back in the day and then the Brothers Johnson one was Right on Time, which of course they’re all produced by Quincy Jones, but that one had the Shuggie Otis cover of Strawberry Letter 22 on it.

Q: And you eventually ended up opening for BB King. There's so many full circles. What did The Roots keyboardist Ray Angry bring to your single?

Glenn: Oh MAN. That’s one of my favorite musicians that we know, and he's just amazing. Just being in the studio with him, he never lets up. This dude literally works — we were putting in 12 hours, 13 hours in the studio, and this man is working the whole time. It's one of those things where we’re in there to create music together, but with us being younger guys I'm still taking notes and learning and it was just really good be working alongside him. Being able just to watch the focus, that kind of rubs off on you. When we’re in the studio him, we just keep working and keep creating. We co-wrote Give Me Your Love with him, and we've got some more stuff with him on the way really soon.

Q: Blues legend Gary Clark Jr. called you guys up for the finale both weekends of Austin City Limits, and told PBS NewsHour that you’re two of the baddest cats in the world. What's it like to hear that from someone you've toured with and admired over the years?

Alex: Oh, it’s amazing. It's definitely a huge honor. We really appreciate everything people like him have done for us, giving us the opportunity to be introduced to the world, and to have amazing experiences also on the road — and even just hanging out with him and his crew and his family. You know, it’s so great to be able to meet such kind and genuine people in the industry, especially people that you really look up to. So again, we really appreciate him and everything that he's done to help us.

Q: Last night you guys opened for Prince's former band New Power Generation you're going to be opening for The Time’s Jesse Johnson soon. What aspects of Prince’s life and recordings inspire you?

Glenn: Everything. I mean, you’re talking about the epitome of showmanship, creativity, musicianship, really with him it’s like what’s not to follow? Especially somebody who just made great decisions musically and with his stage show, and his performance. There’s a thing that separates an instrument player from a musician, and there’s a difference between a musician and an artist. And with him, he's an all around artist because there’s the showmanship, there’s the musicianship. He plays all these different instruments. He understands the technical side, and even with those first couple albums he recorded himself, he was the person in the studio, the engineer on sessions, and everything else on top of it. And that was in the '70s so that wasn't even as easy to do as it is now. So really, I think just everything, every aspect of what he does, it rubs off on all of us that are really serious about music, whether you take away the work ethic, whether you take away the need to have an overall understanding of everything just to communicate with other people, so you can see the whole vision that comes through onstage and in recordings.

Q: And he had the best Super Bowl show ever. You’ve just played Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Fest, gigs across the country, and you’re gearing up for another big touring year, releasing an album and heading back into the studio. What are some of the things your fans can expect for 2020?

Glenn: I think for us in 2020, we're just gonna definitely continue to hit the road and definitely more music. I know it had been five years between our last album, things definitely won’t be that spaced out going forward. And just lot of new original new music, and a lot of fun stuff as we go on to add new music to the show, add to it visually, and just audiences getting to know us as we grow into our own.